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SPOILER INFO
This fanfic novel is largely based on the events that occurred in an actual game of Skyrim I played. Therefore, it's inevitably a spoiler.
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previous day
4-201-11-08 06:49
Hall of Attainment, Winterhold, Winterhold, Skyrim
This is what I have to cross each time I go from the university to the town or vice versa. I try not to think about it.
I hurry to the inn to have a bath with the girls, after which we run west without wasting any time. There's heavy snowfall. When a snowbear attacks, I decide to try out the dragon shout Fire Breath. It encases the bear in flames all right (forgot to take a picture, sorry), but strangely enough those don't do any damage to it, so we still have to kill it by conventional means. Those dragon shouts are such a joke. I wonder who or what was pathetic enough to conceive and create them. Because somehow they came to be, obviously.
We arrive at a very high steep slope and have to look around to find a safe way down. By then we've gotten off course a little. We're quite near to where Hob's Fall Cave is supposed to be, but the direct route is unpassable, so we finally just walk north until we reach the ocean and then to the west along the coast. Soon we see a path back to the south. To my utter joy, it brings us directly to the entrance of our destination.
The first thing we see in the first icy cave is the dead body of a woman. As I've told you, names of all dead creatures are magically visible to every passerby, and this one's is... Isabelle Rolaine.
So I won't have to travel to Bitchen and talk to Vex after all.
Isabelle has a letter addressed to Ranmir on her. Don't ask me why she failed to leave it behind in Winterhold when she left. (Jordis suggests maybe she wrote it along the way and intended to send it by courier from the next settlement. But it hardly matters anymore.) The letter says she couldn't stand the sight of Ranmir suffering because of their poverty, and she has found a way how they can get rich, and assures him she loves him. "Worry not, I'll be home soon," are her final words. An adorable beauty she was, too.
I feel like crouching down on my knees and wailing. This is just too sad. Isn't there any place in the world where I could lead a normal life without having to witness tragedies that tear my heart out? Could I make an agreement with that Psijic Order that if I save the world for them, they'll let me live in such a place? But I have no way of contacting them, and I don't believe in them being so almighty anyway, remember? Better just move on, I guess, and live one day at a time.
This dungeon consists of bigger and smaller icy caves. We encounter mages as well as walking skeletons. I am most pleased with the more or less decent lighting they have here. Firebowls here and there and reflections from icy walls and roofs grant me excellent visibility, so I can shoot half or more of the mages from distances too long even for my Sense of Smell power, let alone for them to notice where we are.
I guess I've mentioned to you in the past how some bandits, especially forns, leave human corpses impaled on sharp stakes outside cave entrances to scare off unwanted visitors. These mages have them all over the dungeon interior as well.
There's also the dead body of a young woman on an altar or experiment table, and a dead man in a cage. Looks like we didn't exterminate them cruel monsters a moment too soon.
Yeah, and we find the helm we came for, too. But I don't want to return to Winterhold, as we have business elsewhere in Skyrim. I may admire Korir's spirit, but he can't expect the world to stop for him, can he? Apart from which, there's little point returning to Winterhold without that book Urag mentioned could help me. And that's supposed to be found south from here, in the region of Hviterun. As to Ranmir, I'm not sure if seeing Isabelle's letter and hearing about her death would make him happier or not. I'll have plenty of time to think about it together with my followers, as we head for Karthwasten now, via Dånstar and Morthal. I want to bring Lash that sword from her mother. Form there, we'll go to Riverwood to finally sort things out with Rudelphine, and find those books stolen from Winterhold along the way.
Dånstar is not far, but there are high mountains in our way. I see no point trying to locate a road. Being a harbor town, Dånstar will be accessible from the coast, and the ocean shore between here and Dånstar is highly likely to be passable by foot, and even if it isn't, a little swim won't kill us.
There are some ruins with massive arches on a nearby island, but there's no way I can be bothered to swim over without a very compelling cause. On our way along the coast, we run past a number of horkers and it's quite fascinating to see a group of three playing. We keep our distance, so as to not make them feel threatened. Near Dånstar, we pass by an abandoned tent, and then a structure which could be a modest lighthouse.
Outside Dånstar harbor, there's a ship. I wonder why it's not inside the harbor with the others. Out of curiosity, I swim over, but I can't see or hear anyone and I can't climb aboard either.
We enter the town from the eastern side of the bay where that route boat goes to Solitud and Windhelm. In front of the first house, a man Silus Vesuius in a fancy robe invites us cordially to take a look at his museum of "a group that toppled an Empire". I'm not too keen. I'd rather make use of the few remaining hours during which the shops will be open.
Thanks, you're kind. But we have other plans. Some other time, okay?
I tell Lydia she can go and see Bjarne, but we won't be staying, so she'd better just find some quiet corner and suck him off quickly. I know a BJ takes usually more time than classical sex, I just want to tease Lydia. To my surprise she smiles and says: "Good idea, Laura. I think I'll do just that," and leaves. Whatever. We'll discuss it later.
The time I end up spending on shopping is actually sufficient for Lydia and her boyfriend to do just about anything they want. In fact, I stay so long in the mines and the jarl's house that the alchemy shop is already closed by the time I want to enter. But that's no big deal. I got lots of stuff sold in other shops.
The sun is about to go down soon, but the main road is bound to have good enough visibility for us to reach Morthal tonight. We have to go a little way to the south and then turn west.
Not long after the turn, we meet an old Orc on the roadside who says he's looking for a good death. It's an Orc tradition that when a man is past his prime, he leaves the village and seeks out an honorable battle to die in, rather than wait until he's gray and feeble and his hair falls out. I try to inspire him to go on with his life, but then I realize there's no point. He's serious, and he's thought it all through, and he's a man, and he's going to stand by his decision.
Yeah. And before he catches pneumonia.
So I offer to give him a good death. I mean, I'm a woman, but in case he doesn't mind... He doesn't and we fight and I don't use any poisons or potions or such, just my usual Blade of Woe. I kill him without much difficulty all the same.
Before the place where the road turns south, we meet a traveling merchant, and then I realize Pale Imperial Camp is really close. So we go and say hello and sell some more of our loot. Then it's off to the south, past the Dwemer ruin Mzinchaleft where we haven't been inside yet and we're not going to today. It's 8 o'clock already, but the snow reflects enough light here to see the road without any difficulty.
Halfway between Mzinchaleft and the village of Stonehills, we witness a battle between imps and storks. The storks win. We loot the bodies and move on. Just outside Stonehills, there's another, albeit a smaller battle going on. Don't they ever rest? Me, I'm so sleepy that I can't even be bothered to travel to Morthal tonight. We'll spend the night right here in Stonehills, in those tents with the miners.
next awakening
